As organic matters or minerals dropped down from the surface of the sea are continuously accumulated, sediment is formed under water or on the seabed.
When the sediment is trapped and analyzed, the total amount of sediment deposited on a relevant water zone can be easily detected.
To this end, there has been invented a device which is fixedly installed at a specific place and supported for a predetermined time to trap the sediment in time series.
In detail, for trapping the sediment, there is suggested a time-series sediment trapping device having a plurality of time-series sediment trapping containers fixedly attached thereto and including a funnel to collect the sediment dropped down under water. The time-series sediment trapping device is generally positioned on the bottom of a lake or the sea to trap the sediment for a long time.
Hereinafter, the time-series sediment trapping device according to the related art will be described in brief.
FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing the time-series sediment trapping device according to the related art, and FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing a main part of the time-series sediment trapping device according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, the time-series sediment trapping device according to the related art includes a funnel 10 to collect sediment dropped down under water, a frame 20 disposed to support and surround the funnel and having at least one rod vertically disposed, and a fixing plate 24 coupled to the at least one rod forming the frame 20 on a horizontal plane defined by a lower portion of the funnel. A rotation plate 30, to which a plurality of time-series sediment trapping containers 36 to trap the time-series sediment collected through the funnel 10 are fixedly attached, is formed on a lower portion of the fixing plate 24. The rotation plate 30 time-series-rotates via gear-engagement through the rotation of a motor 50 to trap the time-series sediment into the time-series sediment trapping container 36.
It is preferred that the fixing plate 24 and the rotation plate 30 are vertically arranged, and a portion of the rotation plate 30 is inserted into the fixing plate 24, and the details of the detailed structures of the fixing plate 24 and the rotation plate 30 will be omitted. The coupling relationship between the fixing plate 24 and the rotation plate 30 is well known to those skilled in the art even though the details of the detailed structures of the fixing plate 24 and the rotation plate 30 are omitted.
The sediment is trapped from a top surface 12 of the funnel 10 into one of a plurality of time-series sediment trapping containers 36 through a neck 16 of the funnel 10 and a trapping hole 31 commonly formed through the fixing plate 24 and the rotation plate 30 provided under the fixing plate 24.
In this case, the sediment may be exactly trapped into one of the time-series sediment trapping containers 36 by guides 14 formed to surround the neck 16 of the funnel.
Reference number 40 of FIG. 1 preferably represents a control unit 40 including a controller to control the overall operations of the time-series sediment trapping device and a battery to ensure the operation of the time-series sediment trapping device under water for a long time.
Preferably, the configurations of an upper end support 20 and a lower end support 26 are further provided at upper and lower ends of the frame 20 constituting the time-series sediment trapping device.
In addition, a mooring hole 21 is preferably further formed in the upper most end of the rod constituting the frame 20 to moor the time-series sediment trapping device. Alternatively, the mooring hole 21 may be formed in the shape of a ring.
In addition, a weight hole 28 may be formed in a lower end of the frame 20 of the time-series sediment trapping device and used to stably drop down the time-series sediment trapping device. When the time-series sediment trapping device is positioned on the bottom of a lake or the sea, a weight may be attached into the weight hole 28.
Hereinafter, a main part of the time-series sediment trapping device according to the related art will be described with reference to FIG. 2.
Since most elements represented in reference numerals 10, 14, 16, and 24 of FIG. 2 are the same as those of FIG. 1, the details thereof will be omitted.
As shown in FIG. 2, the rotation plate 30 is formed at an outer circumference thereof with a gear 33, and the gear 33 is engaged with a gear part 34 of a motor 50. Accordingly, when the motor 50 is rotated, the rotation plate 30 is rotated due to the engagement rotation of the gear part 34. Accordingly, one (shown in reference numeral 2 of FIG. 2) of the time-series sediment trapping containers 36 fixedly coupled to the rotation plate 30 may trap the sediment.
In this case, the time-series sediment trapping containers 36 are preferably screwed with the rotation plate 30. The screw-coupling of one 2 of the time-series sediment trapping containers 36 may be recognized through a threaded part 32 as shown in FIG. 2.
Although numbers are marked in the time-series sediment trapping containers 36 as shown in FIG. 2, the numbers are used only for illustrating the sequence of trapping the sediment when trapping the sediment in time series, and the identified numbers or the inherent sequence of the time-series sediment trapping containers 36 may be expressed in various manners.
When the motor 50 is rotated, the sediment may be first trapped into the time-series sediment trapping container 36 marked in “1” among the time-series sediment trapping containers 36.
For example, as the motor 50 is rotated after a predetermined time, for example, one month or 15 days have been elapsed, the time-series sediment trapping container 36 expressed in “1” is moved to a different position of the fixing plate 24, so that the additional trapping of the sediment may be stopped.
In this case, preferably, the structure of preventing external sediment from being disorderly introduced is further provided.
As described above, after trapping predetermined sediment into the time-series sediment trapping container 36, the time-series sediment trapping container 36 having predetermined sediment, which is trapped, is recovered by lifting a wire (not shown) fixed to the mooring hole 21.
In this case, a portion of the time-series sediment trapping container 36 may be broken, lost, or missed, which is considered to be caused by a strong tidal current. When a portion of the time-series sediment trapping container 36 is broken, lost, or missed, data of the portion of the time-series sediment are omitted. Accordingly, it is necessary to prevent the time-series sediment trapping container from being broken or missed to acquire perfect data in time series when trapping the time-series sediment.
As a prior art related to the present invention, there is U.S. Pat. No. 7,069,771 (published on Jul. 4, 2006) (Title of the Invention: “Partitioning sediment trap”).